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It isn’t quite purple rain, but close! This Bromeliad will add some bright, fluorescent colour to your lounge or dining room. However, your home environment is very different to how this plant grows in the wild, as you'll find out in this month’s blog...
The official name for your ‘Blue Rain’ plant is Aechmea. This comes from the Greek word, Aichna, referring to the spear-like flowerheads. Your ‘Blue Rain’ plant has a glossy rosette of foliage and, in the wild, it can usually be found up high, attached to trees...!
This plant is actually an epiphyte, which means it uses other plants to support itself! There are other 500 Bromeliads in the wild. The flowers only appear once on your ‘Blue Rain’ plant, so make the most of them. Although saying that they will last for many months thanks to their waxy texture. Their bright colours attract hummingbirds in the wilds.
After flowering, you’ll notice new ‘pups’ around your original plant. Those pups will soon take over from the parent plant, actually feeding off the parents in a similar way to how they survive in the wild. Don’t remove the parent plant, even as it dies, as those pups will keep feeding off the rotting carcass...lovely! The pups will soon have beautiful flower spears of their own, too. Clever beasts.
In the wild, Bromeliad plants tend to collect water in their central rosettes, so you’ll need to water them the same way in your home. You can also fertilise them through this method, with a liquid feed!
Don’t let your Bromeliad get too chilly, in fact try and keep things above 15C if possible. The potting soil can be light, and relatively infertile. Keep plants dry during the winter too, they’ll just be having a nice rest.
